MPLS vs. VXLAN encapsulation

At a high level:

  • MPLS was designed to speed up processing of packets. Forwarding is based on the label in the MPLS header. In Juniper, the label information is kept in the mpls.0 table. Labels are advertised using either RSVP or LDP.
  • VXLAN was designed to allow L2 traffic to be forwarded on top of an IP fabric. Traffic is forwarded based on the destination address included in the outer IP header. This address is the address of the destination VXLAN Tunnel End Point (VTEP). A routing protocols such as BGP can be used to advertise the VTEP addresses.

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